MCLEAN, Va., Feb. 14, 2018 – Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) announced today that Marlink, Speedcast, Applied Satellite Technologies Ltd (AST) and Satcom Global are the initial global maritime launch partners for Iridium Certus. The first regional maritime launch partner, Arion, will focus on delivering Iridium Certus to the Asian market. These commitments represent a major milestone for the Iridium Certus program, allowing each company to deliver a new choice in the maritime industry and offer what will soon become the market’s fastest L-band satellite connectivity.

For decades, the maritime industry lacked truly global coverage and had only one real choice for L-band connectivity at sea. This changed with Iridium®, and with the introduction of Iridium Certus, a cutting-edge alternative has arrived for mariners. Offering a high-performing, competitively priced solution that features state-of-the-art technology, Iridium Certus is designed to meet the needs of the ‘connected ship.’ Operating on small-form-factor terminals with solid-state, active-array antennas, the service will enable more efficient business operations, cost-effective crew welfare solutions, and safety communications, while providing a pole-to-pole, truly global grid for Internet of Things (IoT) smart ship applications. Already undergoing live testing, Iridium Certus terminals built by Cobham and Thales will debut at speeds of 352 Kbps, later upgradable to 704 Kbps through a firmware update. With eventual speeds reaching approximately 1.4 Mbps, Iridium Certus will also enable multiple streaming classes and safety services designed to provide reliable connectivity in even the harshest environments.

The Iridium Certus launch partners represent the truly global nature of Iridium and will deliver business critical broadband solutions to all key maritime markets. Marlink, a leading global maritime communications, IT and digital solutions provider, is a long-time Iridium partner and will offer Iridium Certus as both a standalone service and as a companion to very small aperture terminals (VSAT). “We combine the industry’s most extensive portfolio of technology-agnostic multi-band connectivity services and value-added solutions with a consultative approach to address client needs,” said Ghani Behloul, chief marketing officer, Marlink. “Our long-term, non-exclusive alliances and commercial collaborations with Satellite Operators ensure we can deliver future-proof solutions, and we look forward to continuing our work with Iridium in order to bring the benefits of its next generation network to our global customer base.”

As a global leader in critical communications in maritime, energy, enterprise, and government, Iridium partner Speedcast brings its many years of expertise to the Iridium Certus family. “The uniqueness of Iridium Certus’ reliability and the unmatched global coverage expands our Managed Services portfolio, bringing a new choice to our tailored solutions for the maritime industry,” said Tim Bailey, executive vice president, products, marketing and business development at Speedcast. “The innovation in L-band broadband throughput which Iridium Certus promises, will address a wide range of services for the ship owner, and complements our broad portfolio of high-end, customized solutions we deliver today.”

With a proven track record in delivering market-leading maritime projects world-wide, The AST Group of companies, one of Iridium’s largest partners, joins the Iridium Certus program as a global launch partner, bringing over 25 years of expertise and innovation to the maritime market. “In today’s ‘bring-your-own-device’ world, managing communications on board vessels is critical,” said Mark Sykes, director, The AST Group. “AST’s unique suite of value-added services, combined with Iridium Certus, will deliver unprecedented capabilities to maximize efficiency and reduce costs at sea.”

Satcom Global, a worldwide expert in maritime satellite communications and engineering services, will deliver Iridium Certus to its wide network of customers as a global launch partner. As a valued Iridium partner with more than four decades of experience in the maritime market, Satcom Global will bring its value added approach to the Iridium Certus rollout. “Iridium’s signature full global coverage, coupled with the enhanced capacity and speed of Iridium Certus, has created a real buzz in the marketplace,” said Graeme Gordon, global commercial director, Satcom Global. “We’re excited to bring this new service to our diverse maritime customer base.”

An Iridium partner since 2015, Arion is a trusted supplier of marine and offshore safety systems and engineering services. Arion brings a strong footprint and expertise in Asian markets and will provide service as a regional Iridium Certus maritime launch partner.

“Iridium Certus is creating a marketplace that brings choice and innovation, which is something the industry has been craving,” said Wouter Deknopper, vice president and general manager of maritime at Iridium. “For many years we have been listening to the market, and we know that mariners are often forced to sacrifice quality for bandwidth, or vice versa, due to high prices. But soon we will be delivering a standardized solution that helps solve this persistent issue. Iridium Certus is a game changer and is directly responding to the feedback we hear from our industry partners and customers.”

Iridium Certus is planned for commercial availability in mid-2018, and Iridium plans to announce additional maritime service providers in the coming weeks. Iridium NEXT is the Company’s next-generation satellite constellation, which will replace its existing network. To date, there have been four successful Iridium NEXT launches, deploying more than half of the new constellation. Four additional launches are planned in 2018.

Iridium is the only mobile voice and data satellite communications network that spans the entire globe. Iridium enables connections between people, organizations and assets to and from anywhere, in real time. Together with its ecosystem of partner companies, Iridium delivers an innovative and rich portfolio of reliable solutions for markets that require truly global communications. The company has a major development program underway for its next-generation network — Iridium NEXT. Iridium Communications Inc. is headquartered in McLean, Va., U.S.A., and its common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol IRDM. For more information about Iridium products, services and partner solutions, visit www.iridium.com.

Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this press release that are not purely historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company has based these statements on its current expectations and the information currently available to us. Forward-looking statements in this presentation include statements regarding the deployment and capabilities of the Iridium NEXT constellation and products and services to be offered over the constellation, including IoT and Iridium Certus, as well as the potential market for such products and services. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the words “anticipates,” “may,” “can,” “believes,” “expects,” “projects,” “intends,” “likely,” “will,” “to be” and other expressions that are predictions or indicate future events, trends or prospects. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Iridium to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, uncertainties regarding potential delays in the Iridium NEXT deployment, the development and functionality of Iridium NEXT and related products and services, and the company’s ability to maintain the health, capacity and content of its satellite constellation, as well as general industry and economic conditions, and competitive, legal, governmental and technological factors. Other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements include those factors listed under the caption “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on February 23, 2017, as well as other filings Iridium makes with the SEC from time to time. There is no assurance that Iridium’s expectations will be realized. If one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if Iridium’s underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those expected, estimated or projected. Iridium’s forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release, and Iridium undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements.